Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Ronny Chieng: Asian Comedian Destroys America!’ On Netflix, Delivering Ugly Truths

Americans love to love America as the greatest country in the world, while simultaneously arguing among each other about what’s great and not-so great about it. Leave it to an immigrant comedian to bring some fresh perspectives and settle debates once and for all. Or at least get us to stop and laugh about what we’ve allowed to become our customs and traditions, right? Here comes Ronny Chieng: Asian Comedian Destroys America!

RONNY CHIENG: ASIAN COMEDIAN DESTROYS AMERICA!: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: You may recognize Ronny Chieng as one of the Crazy Rich Asians from last year’s hit movie, or from his comedic news reports as a correspondent since 2015 on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. Chieng became a full-time U.S. resident for that job. He’d been born in Malaysia, and raised in places as varied as New Hampshire, Singapore, and Australia, starting his comedy career a decade ago in Melbourne. Chieng was a hit onstage and onscreen in Australia before coming to America. Here, he’s still largely unknown. This special, his first for Netflix, and produced by All Things Comedy (the comedian co-op founded and run by Bill Burr and Al Madrigal) serves as that more proper introduction to audiences everywhere.

And Chieng doesn’t have time to waste, telling his audience to quit with the sustained applause: “Netflix says we’re losing viewers by the second. Let’s get started!”

What Comedy Specials Will It Remind You Of?: Much like John Oliver, Chieng’s outsider serves him well as both a Daily Show correspondent as well as a stand-up targeting America with his observational humor. He also reminds us that there’s something about wearing a suit that gets us to pay closer attention to what the human wearing the suit is saying.

Memorable Jokes: Chieng delivers a brilliant analogy early on in his hour, observing how the Internet is somehow only making society dumber despite containing all of the world’s knowledge. He does so with a series of examples predicting a future world in which we treat the Internet like we treat smoking now. The best example arrives last: “Secondhand stupidity’s a real killer.”

It’s easy to joke about how Americans have gotten fat, or lazy, or stupid due to our excesses. Chieng’s observations go deeper, though, highlighting how abundance has led to absurd waste and even more absurd expectations. “There’s so much stuff!” he notes. “Every day, new stuff. It’s like Christmas every day!” Just count, he tells us, how many screens (watch, phone, laptop, TV) we place between our eyes and the wall in front of us. And despite living with the knowledge of an impending global climate crisis, we’re triple-bagging our take-out food and stuffing those bags with napkins; and insisting on same-day delivery with everything in its own cardboard packaging.

“Where do we go from here, as a civilization?” Joking or not, it’s a valid question.

Our Take: Chieng’s commentary on America varies in its levels of insight.

A bit about how the 50 states have their own individual sensibilities that might prove all Americans are not alike devolves into a series of banal observations about state mottoes. Similarly, you don’t need to hear Chieng tell you why African-Americans seem cooler than other Americans. He does, however, peel back the curtain on why Asian parents really want their children to become doctors; it’s not for obvious medical reasons. And he makes an interesting argument why Asians should referee America’s ongoing racial divide between whites and blacks. Using a highly-publicized Starbucks racial-profiling incident from 2018 as an example, Chieng jokes to call Asians instead of the police. “We don’t care, because our skin is not in the game.” Adding: “You can trust us to tell you the truth. Ugly truths, but truths nonetheless.”

The Yang Gang likely will love Chieng’s observation that “we need an Asian president” to solve problems logically instead of politically.

Crazy Rich Asians fans, meanwhile, will love hearing how Chieng’s own wedding plans became more comically complicated due to his day job a world away from his multiple ceremonies with his new bride and family.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Chieng moved to America in September 2015, just in time to witness the rise of Trump. As an immigrant, he’s precisely the comedian to remind us why anyone chooses to come here, and why it’s folly for so many of us to focus on what we think sucks about America, or whether it needs to be returned to greatness. These are “first-world allergies,” he reminds us. Chieng has the cure. Even if he’s not a doctor like his parents may have wished.

Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper, The Comic’s Comic; before that, for actual newspapers. Based in NYC but will travel anywhere for the scoop: Ice cream or news. He also tweets @thecomicscomic and podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.

Watch Ronny Chieng: Asian Comedian Destroys America! on Netflix